Interview with J. Craig Venter

ebusinessmedia1 writes "An fascinating article that has Venter reflecting on the work yet to be done in genomics, and his strong sense that biology will drive developments in computing in the near future."

Mod Parent Up

[pgaffney]

Here's my question for him. Are we any closer to being able to create viruses able to destroy an entire race, but not affect other races? I know a few races I'd like to be rid of.

Given that morons like the above clearly exist, do we indeed want to press ahead with this technology right now? Last I checked, all the peoples of the world weren't getting along too great, and the above troll is a good example of why we wouldn't want this to be TOO common / cheap. If we as a community are opposed to secrecy o

Re:Mod Parent Up

[Bowling Moses]

Well there's just one problem: all of our most current research points out that there really isn't a biological definition of race so it would be ~impossible to target. Hell we'd have about as good of odds targeting a virus towards knuckle-dragging white (or black or whoever) supremacists--although that might be money well spent.

I don't buy that Venter wrote that

[dh003i]

I really don't buy that this article was written by Venter. I may not like the man for various proprietary-related reasons, but he is certainly a better writer than this rubbish in the article.

These may be his ideas expressed in this article, but I don't buy for one second that he actually wrote this. Some journalist probably screwed up all of his quotes, or took notes and simply could not present the ideas clearly.

Putting aside the literary flaws of this article, Venter has some interesting ideas. The qu

Re:I don't buy that Venter wrote that

[kekoap]

When I read the article, it seemed like the interview was missing the questions. That might explain the so-called "literary flaws."

Re:I don't buy that Venter wrote that

[fain0v]

There is new technology involving microfluidics that looks "promising". The whole lab on a chip thing. There are companies out there that are trying to develop technology to sequence someones genome for a thousand dollars. By the time we can sequence an individuals genome, processing power will be cheaper. There are too many IF's in all of this anyway.

Re:I don't buy that Venter wrote that

[dh003i]

That'd be a valid line of logic if we were talking about some entrepreneur no-one's ever heard of before. We're not. We're talking about Craig Venter.

Never trust anyone without a first name!

[Nathan Ramella]

J. P. Morgan
J. Jonah Jameson
P. T. Barnum
F. Murray Abraham

Then you turn around, and there's Craig T. Nelson. And he's a stand up guy.

Re:Never trust anyone without a first name!

[sketerpot]

L. Ron Hubbard
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. J. of the Two Wise Heads

Don't trust them!

Did you say...protein?

[Paddyish]

Do we have the compute power to model a hundred trillion cells changing in real time with maybe 300,000 different protein components?

What you need is...A MEAT COMPUTER!

Computer used to be a job title.

[Bowling Moses]

As did "calculator."

Unfortunately...

[Lazyhound]

...Solid Snake was unavailable for comment.

Genomics, yes, but what about Somatics?

[leonbrooks]

Given that the vast majority of the material inherited from one's mother is not DNA, not genes, and that this cellular material (cytosomes, organelles, replication molecules etc) regulates the DNA, surely we need to start finding out more about this other stuff about now?

Re:Genomics, yes, but what about Somatics?

[lovebyte]

Half your DNA (if you are a girl and more than half if you are not) comes from your mother except if you are a clone. That's a lot of "stuff".

Not just half of your DNA...

[leonbrooks]

...all of the machinery needed to support it, as well.

You get bequeathed almost everything except about half of your DNA from dear old Mum. The vast majority of your biological building blocks are epigenetic, and you get almost all of that matrilineally (certainly by weight; I don't know of any studies into what else besides DNA is contributed by the spermatoza - science seems to have been more than slightly tunnel-vision about DNA).

And cytoplasm is a long way from the simple `albuminous putty' that Haeck

Re:Genomics, yes, but what about Somatics?

[sd211]

To be exact, exactly half of genomic DNA comes from each parent. Extra-chromasomal DNA (e.g. mitochondrial DNA) is contributed by mother. Machinery which is required for DNA replication does not really matter; half-life of proteins is relatively short, and new proteins that make up the machinery will be made from the genomic DNA. Although the is some extra-chromasomal DNA which comes from maternal side, it's effects are small compared to the effects of the genomic DNA.

The Four-letter word?

[G3ckoG33k]

"But it was almost like an underground movement because, politically, ESTs were a four-letter word[...]"

Four-letter word? Hrrrmm... Celera.... Hrrrm... Then it must be ACGT.